Sports and Numbers

Newsletter

 
Preview: Missouri at Kansas Print E-mail
Jan 25, 2010

Missouri at Kansas (Lawrence, KS)

  Kansas Missouri

Performance Indicators

   
Record (conference)
18-1 (4-0)
15-4 (3-1)
AP Rank 2
NR
(34th most votes)
Pomeroy Rating
(Updated daily)
1
10
Consensus Ranking
(Updated periodically - avg several computer ratings and polls)
1
28
Best opponents defeated this season
(Ranking from Pomeroy)

vs Baylor (#20) W 81-75
vs California (#22) W 84-69

vs Kansas St. (#12) W 74-68
vs ODU (#29) W 66-61
RPI
(Used for schedule strength, not team strength. Current and forecast RPI from RPIForecast .)

Current: 2

Forecast: 1

Current: 47

Forecast: 30

Projected NCAA Tournament Seed
(Latest consensus from The Bracket Matrix)
 #1 Seed
 #8 Seed

Prediction Models

   
Vegas Oddsmakers Win by 12.0
Est. Projection: 81-69
 
Prediction Tracker
(Average of several power ratings)
 Win by 11.1  
Sagarin Power Ratings (Predictor)  Win by 10.79  
Pomeroy
(Efficiency and Tempo-Adjusted)

 Win 81-69
87% chance of victory

 
 TeamRankings.com

(Use home rating for home team, road for road.  If fewer than 3 games played at corresponding locations, use "predictive" ratings for both teams but use specific home advantage rather than standard average homecourt advantage for all NCAA teams.)

Win by 16.2  
Last 7 Games (Venue Adjusted)
(Uses team performance and consistency over last 5 home/non-home games, whichever pertains to this game + 2 other most recent games regardless of location.  This takes offense and defense into account separately to reflect how consistent teams have played on each end of the court)
 Est. Projection: 80-70
71.6% chance of victory
 
Similar Opponent
(Examines offensive performance against similar defensive teams and defensive performance against similar offensive teams.  Threshold for similarity set at efficiencies of 5 pts/100 possessions above or below that of opponent in this game.  If necessary, threshold adjusted to find a minimum of three games to analyze for offense and defense.)
  Est. Projection: 79-72
64.9% chance of victory
 
Weighted Average of All Models Above
(40% Vegas + 10% Pred Trckr + 10% SagP + 10% Pom + 10% TmRnk + 10% SimOpp + 10% Last 7)
 Win by 11.4
Est. Projection: 81-69
 

 

 

PSAN-Related Player Ratings - Cumulative This Season

(PSAN-O = Offensive impact, PSAN-D = Defensive impact.  For PSAN-D, lower ratings are better.  PSAN70 ratings are just PSAN expressed as "per 70 possessions" to reflect efficiency.  The difference between ePSAN and PSAN is that "e" is enhanced and weighs recent games more - used for Kansas only.)

Kansas

 

Impact Ratings

 

PLAYER ePSAN-O ePSAN-D ePSAN-Comp
Cole Aldrich 49.94 -63.71 113.65
Marcus Morris 62.24 -22.70 84.94
Sherron Collins 58.62 -18.90 77.52
Xavier Henry 22.94 -38.33 61.26
Markieff Morris 19.34 -18.94 38.28
Tyrel Reed 18.56 -17.64 36.20
Brady Morningstar 23.23 -12.88 36.10
Tyshawn Taylor 17.51 -13.97 31.48
Elijah Johnson* 9.55 -4.16 13.70
C.J. Henry* 12.59 -0.69 13.28
Jeff Withey* 3.99 -4.14 8.12
Thomas Robinson -4.28 -11.08 6.80
Conner Teahan* -0.63 -3.27 2.64
Chase Buford* -0.14 -0.42 0.28
Jordan Juenemann* 0.16 0.42 -0.25

 

 Efficiency Ratings

 

PLAYER ePSAN70-O ePSAN70-D ePSAN70-Comp
Jeff Withey* 5.19 -5.39 10.58
Cole Aldrich 3.99 -5.08 9.07
C.J. Henry* 7.09 -0.39 7.48
Marcus Morris 5.45 -1.99 7.44
Brady Morningstar 3.44 -1.91 5.35
Markieff Morris 2.60 -2.55 5.15
Tyrel Reed 2.58 -2.45 5.04
Sherron Collins 3.81 -1.23 5.04
Elijah Johnson* 3.20 -1.39 4.59
Xavier Henry 1.72 -2.87 4.59
Tyshawn Taylor 1.63 -1.30 2.93
Conner Teahan* -0.43 -2.25 1.81
Thomas Robinson -0.93 -2.41 1.48
Chase Buford* -0.24 -0.72 0.48
Jordan Juenemann* 0.49 1.25 -0.76

 

* Rating not based on enough data.

Missouri

  

Impact Ratings

 

PLAYER PSAN-O PSAN-D PSAN-Comp
Laurence Bowers 54.42 -36.67 91.09
Keith Ramsey 17.52 -40.54 58.05
Marcus Denmon 27.93 -17.59 45.52
Zaire Taylor 20.49 -21.46 41.96
Kim English 10.19 -25.20 35.39
Michael Dixon Jr. 17.98 -9.90 27.89
Justin Safford -3.64 -19.22 15.58
Miguel Paul 10.83 -3.70 14.52
Tyler Stone* 4.70 -2.64 7.34
J.T. Tiller -4.71 -10.72 6.01
Steve Moore* -2.58 -7.57 4.99
John Underwood* -0.49 -1.54 1.05
Jarrett Sutton* -4.28 -1.04 -3.23

 

 

Efficiency Ratings

 

PLAYER PSAN70-O PSAN70-D PSAN70-Comp
Laurence Bowers 5.36 -3.61 8.97
Tyler Stone* 4.47 -2.51 6.98
Keith Ramsey 1.39 -3.23 4.62
Marcus Denmon 2.79 -1.76 4.55
Zaire Taylor 1.63 -1.71 3.34
Kim English 0.93 -2.31 3.24
Michael Dixon Jr. 1.99 -1.10 3.09
Miguel Paul 1.72 -0.59 2.31
Justin Safford -0.39 -2.05 1.66
Steve Moore* -0.54 -1.57 1.03
John Underwood* -0.40 -1.25 0.85
J.T. Tiller -0.51 -1.15 0.65
Jarrett Sutton* -5.38 -1.31 -4.07

 

* Rating not based on enough data.




Player Analysis:

(largely in context of ratings above)

 

Kansas fans should not underestimate Laurence Bowers.  The guy has simply had a great season on both ends of the court.  Offensively, he rates about as good as any KU player, with Marcus Morris just a smidge better.  On defense, only Aldrich for KU rates better than Bowers.  The only problem is that all of this is locked up in one player for the Tigers, meaning he'd better play plenty of minutes (he doesn't usually play more than 20-24 minutes) and stay out of foul trouble (hasn't fouled out yet but does average most fouls per game on team).  After Bowers, things are pretty well balanced for Missouri in terms of impact.  The only guy who has struggled much is J.T. Tiller who actually rates negative on offense while playing 23 minutes per game.  Tiller's problem is a sky-high 25 TO%. 

 

 

Last 7 Game Projection

 

  Kansas Missouri
Expected Score 79.7 70.4
Win 71.6% 28.4%
Win by 3 or less 6.8% 5.8%
Win by 10 or more 48.4% 11.7%

 

Down to the Wire?

 Margin of game was less than 1 point in 4.4% of simulated games from "Last 7 Game Analysis."  Many of these would be "overtime" games.

 

(Methodology of Last 7 Game Analysis: Here, we look at the last seven venue-appropriate games to see how the teams are performing.  If the game takes place on the road for Kansas, for example, the analysis looks at the five most recent non-home games for Kansas.  In addition, the two most recent games, regardless of venue, are added.  That way, we get a picture of the how the team is performing of late.  This season, the analysis also splits offense and defense.  Teams often are more or less consistent on one side of the court than the other.  This analysis will reflect that.  Based on the strength of the opposing offense and defense they've played over the last seven games, each team's offense and defense is evaluated based on strength and consistency.  Those numbers are then plugged into a simulation of 8,000 games.  The results are what you see in the table.)

 

Similar Opponent Projection

 

  Kansas Missouri
Expected Score 78.9 72.1
Win 64.9% 35.1%
Win by 3 or less 6.9% 6.4%
Win by 10 or more 42.1% 16.7%

 

Down to the Wire?

 Margin of game was less than 1 point in 4.6% of simulated games from "Last 7 Game Analysis."  Many of these would be "overtime" games.

 

(Methodology of Similar Opponent Analysis: Here, we look at games against opponents with similar offensive and defensive profiles to the opponent of interest to see how the teams are performing.  For Kansas, we would look at its offensive performances against teams that have a defense that is within 5 pts/100 possessions efficiency above or below that of the opponent in this game.  If this does not result in at least three appropriate comparisons, the threshold will be adjusted until it finds three.  If there are more than three that are within the original threshold, all of those will be used.  The same is done for defense but using offensive profiles of opponents.  The analysis splits offense and defense.  Teams often are more or less consistent on one side of the court than the other.  This analysis will reflect that.  Those numbers are then plugged into a simulation of 8,000 games.  The results are what you see in the table.)

 

 

Four Factors Regression Analysis

KenPom.com's "Game Plan" feature shows the Four Factors results for every game a team has played.  Below the results, there is a table with correlation coefficients that show how closely related each of the Four Factors is to a team's offensive and defensive efficiency (both for itself and its opponent).  Unfortunately, the correlations are based on raw efficiencies, which of course has much less value because a team's true efficiency is significantly affected by the strength of the opponent.  Below, I have taken each team's Four Factors results and run a multiple regression analysis with the Four Factors as the variables of interest and the adjusted efficiencies as the outcome of interest to see whether a team's eFG%, for example, is related to its true offensive efficiency.

 

Statistical Significance = There is less than a 10% chance that the relationship between this statistic and the team's adjusted offensive or defensive efficiency is due merely to chance.

Four Factors Rank = In ascending order, which of the Four Factors has the lowest chance of being related to efficiency due merely to chance (i.e., best significance).

 

Kansas

 

Offense Statistical Significance Four Factors Rank
Overall Regression Yes  
eFG% Yes
2
TO% Yes
1
OREB%   3
FTA/FGA   4
     
Defense    
Overall Regression Yes  
eFG% Yes
1
TO% Yes
3
OREB% Yes
2
FTA/FGA   4
Missouri

 

Offense Statistical Significance Four Factors Rank
Overall Regression Yes  
eFG% Yes 1
TO% Yes
2
OREB%   4
FTA/FGA   3
     
Defense    
Overall Regression Yes  
eFG% Yes
1
TO% Yes 2
OREB%   3

FTA/FGA

  4
 
Key Factors This Game

 

Using the p-values from the regression analyses above, we can calculate the probabability that a factor will be statistically significant in this game.

 

At least 75% likely to be important:

  • Missouri eFG%
  • Missouri TO%
  • Kansas eFG%
  • Kansas TO%
  • Missouri OREB%

 

Between 50-75% likely to be important:

  • None

 

Between 25-50% likely to be important:

  • Kansas OREB%
  • Missouri FT Rate

 

 

Season Performance Trends

The charts below show the trend for each team's performance this season.  For each game, a team's offensive, defensive and overall performance is standardized.  Thus, performance indicates how many points per 100 possessions a team would score (offense), yield (defense) or net (average of offense and inverse defense) for a game.  It is based purely on its opponent's adjusted efficiencies and the resulting efficiency of the game played.  The dotted lines represent the best-fit line (linear regression), indicating which way a team may be trending for the season overall.

 

 

TRENDS ANALYSIS:  Although the ISU game was a step in the right direction, KU still looks to be trending downward overall, in particular because their defense has been very porous of late.  Missouri, on the other hand, has been fairly flat across the season trend.  If anything, their overall trend is ever so slightly upward.  Still, they have only one game in their last five where their overall performance was clearly above the trend line.

 

 

Statistical Strengths and Weaknesses Analysis

(Note: These are based on raw statistics that are unadjusted for strength of opposition.) 

 

** Denotes that team with advantage also ranks in Top 50 in that category
Clear Advantage for Kansas No Clear Advantage Clear Advantage for Missouri
Kansas OREB**    
Missouri FT Rate    
Missouri 2pt FG%**    
  Kansas FT%  
  Kansas FT Rate  
  Missouri eFG%  
  Missouri PTS/Poss  
  Missouri % own 2FGA's blocked  
  Kansas 2pt FG%  
  Missouri % Poss STL by Opp  
  Kansas eFG%  
  Missouri OREB  
  Kansas PTS/Poss  
  Kansas 3pt FG%  
  Missouri 3pt FG%  
  Kansas TO rate  
  Missouri TO rate  
  Missouri FT%  
  Kansas % Poss STL by Opp  
    Kansas % own 2FGA's blocked**

 

************************************************************* 

Missouri will have above avg % of FG's assisted
Expect uptempo game

 

 

 

Game Projections

(Not a prediction.  Read more details in "FAQ & Terms" section.)

Manual adjustments: C.J. Henry with 0 minutes per "doubtful" status due to tailbone injury.

 


Projected Boxscore

 

Kansas 81                            
Missouri 69                            
                               
Kansas                              
PLAYER MIN 2FGM 2FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB TREB AST TO STL BLK
Brady Morningstar 24 1 2 1 2 1 1 6 1 2 3 3 1 1 0
Cole Aldrich 28 4 8 0 0 4 5 12 4 7 11 1 2 1 3
Marcus Morris 25 4 7 0 1 3 5 11 4 3 7 1 1 1 0
Markieff Morris 16 2 4 0 1 1 2 5 2 4 6 1 2 0 1
Sherron Collins 34 3 7 2 5 3 4 15 0 2 2 3 3 1 0
Thomas Robinson 8 2 3 0 0 1 2 5 2 2 4 0 2 0 1
Tyrel Reed 11 0 1 1 3 0 0 3 0 1 1 1 1 1 0
Tyshawn Taylor 24 2 4 1 2 2 2 9 1 2 3 3 3 1 0
Xavier Henry 30 3 6 2 5 3 4 15 1 3 4 2 3 2 0
TOTALS 200 21 42 7 19 18 25 81 15 26 41 15 18 8 5
                               
Missouri                              
PLAYER MIN 2FGM 2FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB TREB AST TO STL BLK
J.T. Tiller 24 2 6 0 1 2 3 6 1 2 3 3 3 1 0
Justin Safford 20 2 6 0 1 1 1 5 1 3 4 1 2 1 1
Keith Ramsey 27 2 4 0 0 1 2 5 3 3 6 1 2 1 1
Kim English 23 3 6 2 6 2 3 14 1 2 3 1 3 1 0
Laurence Bowers 22 3 7 0 1 2 2 8 3 3 6 1 1 1 1
Marcus Denmon 22 1 3 2 5 1 2 9 1 2 3 1 1 1 0
Michael Dixon Jr. 20 2 4 1 2 1 2 8 0 1 1 2 1 1 0
Miguel Paul 9 1 2 1 2 1 1 6 0 1 1 2 1 1 0
Steve Moore 6 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 2 0 1 0 1
Zaire Taylor 27 1 3 1 3 2 3 7 1 2 3 2 1 2 0
TOTALS 200 17 42 7 21 14 20 69 12 20 32 14 16 10 4

 

 

Projection Summary

 

 
Projection
Comments

 OVERALL RESULTS

 Final Score  KU 81-69  
 Tempo (# poss)
 75 

 FOUR FACTORS ADVANTAGES

 eFG%  KU 52-44%  
 TO Rate (lo better)  MU 24-21%  
 O-Reb% KU 43-32%
 
 FT Rate KU 41-32%
 
 Four Factors Overall
 Mizzou may get some more turnovers, but KU should win the other categories, mostly with better shooting from the field and more trips to the line.
 
 

PLAYER PROJECTIONS (10+ min played)

 Leading Scorers

 KU - X. Henry/Collins

 Opp - English, Denmon

 
 Highest PSAN-Comp
(game impact)

 KU - Aldrich

 Opp - Bowers

 
 Highest PSAN70-Comp
(efficiency)

 KU - Aldrich

 Opp - Bowers

 
 Highest efficiency vs season-to-date

 KU - Taylor, Aldrich

 Opp - Dixon Jr.

 
 Lowest efficiency vs season-to-date

 KU - Reed, Markieff Morris

 Opp - Bowers, Tiller

 Yikes for MU.  Their best and worst players are projected to struggle.  What does that mean?

 

Sports and Numbers Projection

Kansas wins 81-69

(all prediction models included/complete)

 

 

Add comment

Security code
Refresh